Gone to the Market!

Today was an exciting day with having the opportunity to explore one of the many markets in London. I was assigned to Camden Market out in Camden Town. I was expecting the market to be like a farmer's market, produce and crafty goods alike. When we stepped off the Tubes and into the town however, that was not the case. Instead we entered the punk-rock scene in London. A majority of the vendors catered to the punk crowd and sold many gothic clothes and accessories. When I got further into the market, there was a part of it called Camden Lock, where there is a beautiful canal running through the town. I explored up and down some parts of it and saw boats traveling along it as well. Then the group finally stumbled upon the better parts of the market, the parts we were anticipating all morning. We entered a scene of many food vendors selling every kind of ethnic food imaginable. There were Indian, Italian, BBQ, Indonesian, Japanese and Mexican food vendors all right next to each other, selling their wares. There were many vintage, punk-rock and Indian vendors throughout the majority of the marketplace. The group of us enjoyed a nice meal of the culture of our choice (mine being Chinese today) for only 4 pounds. After completing our task for the day, we headed back to the hotel.

Once back to the hotel, I met up with my friend Sarah and we both decided to go out and explore since we had free time. We took the Tubes to Tower Hill, where the Tower of London stands. Our main goal was to see the tower, but we realized we would only have about 2 hours to spend before it closed, so we decided to explore. We went from Tower Hill up to The Monument (and named just that!). The Monument is this monument tower created by Sir Christopher Wren in the 1700s to commemorate the start of the 1666 London Fire. It was built about 212 or so feet high, the same distance away from the Monument that the fire had first started. The fire started on Pudding Street in a baker's shop. Unfortunately, Sarah and I did not know this at first and originally went down Pudding Street because of the cute name, little did we know that one of the most catasrophic events to hit London started down that street! Sarah and I decided to walk up the Monument, all 311 steps of it. It had an amazing view of London and we could see the entire city!

311 steps later, Sarah and I decided to walk around more of the city. We went through Southwark and walked into the Southwark Church and listened to part of a service. We left the church (after paying for the Loo) and walked through a local marketplace that was closing. We walked back under a bridge and then managed to finally reach our goal: Walking across the Tower Bridge aka the "London Bridge". The bridge is just spectacular and impressive. There was an exhibit going on in towers on the bridge, but neither one of us felt like walking up more steps!

After a long day of walking, we got our supper at the Organic Foods Market right around the corner and ate in the garden. Then, after reviewing our plans for tomorrow, both of us realized that the group would be walking along a similar path tomorrow. So coming up tomorrow: walking along the Roman parts of London and the hotel neighborhood!

Sending lots of warm wishes from London!